5k PR

Time: 20:33
Overall place: 24th out of 250ish
Age place: 2nd (!)

I'm quite pleased with my time; I beat my previous 5k PR by 41 seconds. A sub 20 min seems well within reach!

I was suffering a bit at the beginning; I don't know if I needed to warm up more or if I just started too fast (both, probably). My feet were pretty numb from the cold, and the pavement was wet from an earlier rain. So there I was, breathing too hard at the first mile, when my feet started to warm up and I could feel the ground better. Turns out I was doing something weird with my big toes on each foot, twisting them somehow. This is where if I were smarter, I would have slowed down, corrected my form, then picked up the pace again. Instead I tried to stop the twisting on the fly and I simply couldn't stop doing it. Very strange. So, I went back to the basics:

Knees bent? check.
Lifting feet? hmm, could try lifting a little higher... that seems to help a bit...
Posture? I straightened up my torso ever so slightly, and my hips fell into place and the twisting stopped. And, interestingly, my pace picked up and I wasn't feeling as winded. File that one in the useful information folder. But I knew there would be blisters.

I finished up with a sprint, passing the first place lady. I didn't get passed by anyone the entire race. That was pretty cool. Winded, I was approached by the speedy local track team kids, who asked me what was up with my bare feet.

"Shoes... are against... my... religion," I gasped, gulping for air.

Not satisfied with my smartass answer, they let me catch my breath and explain myself better. The local paper guy chatted with me and took pictures. He asked to see the soles of my feet... Oh crap. My feet. They felt ok, but I hadn't looked at them yet. I told him my form wasn't very good for the race, that I pushed off a bit, and demonstrated what I should have been doing vs what I did do... basically, I was stalling. When I finally turned my foot over, a little blood blister under the joint of my big toe glowed like the nose of Rudolph the Sloppy Form Reindeer. I'll take a picture once the batteries are charged up.

Having torn my feet up in minimalist shoes, this little blister was nothing. Cute, even. But I'm still a little disappointed. Ah well, learning experience. And hey, I got a PR and was second in my age group (first was about 40 seconds faster than me), so that's cool.

But the REAL disappointment, is I thought there would be bbq to eat at the finish, what with the bbq Festival and all. Turns out the festival, or the eating part of it anyway, is NEXT week. So yeah, I'm starving right now.

In wife news, she's getting faster and ran the entire distance while chatting with her friend who joined us for the race. It's interesting to watch a beginner progress and going through all the emotions of starting off slow and unable to do a mile, then get better but be mad that improvement isn't happening faster, then be excited at a new PR, then be mad again, and so on. What have I gotten this poor woman in to?

To sum up: 5k PR, first blisters in months, no bbq, wife getting faster. Alright, enough of this nonsense. I'm going to go eat.